Thursday, February 26, 1998

This photo might have been taken on almost any Saturday from 1986 to 1989. The cop in front of the South African Embassy has come up with some petty quibble about the picket, most likely the volume of the megaphone. Steven Kitson is adroitly holding his ground. And the comrade in between clearly doesn't believe the cop is winning the argument. There must have been hundreds of photos like this. Most would have remained undeveloped unless a prosecution was in the offing. Any kind of confrontation on the picket was the cue for evidence gathering: photos, recordings, notes and witnesses' contact details. Such standing operating procedures were essential to City of London Anti-Apartheid Group's incredible acquittal rate in the courts when a politicized police force attempted to make the Mandela picket go away.
Steven was only 40 when he died of cancer on Nov. 12, 1997.

Thank you for your condolences on the death of our son Steven, who died of cancer at the age of 40.
When he was 9 years old and Verwoed was assassinated, he was beaten up by boys in his school, because 'his father was a communist'. My family was continually harassed by the security police while I was in jail and in 1968 came to England, where he grew up.
He started coming to visit me in jail in South Africa when he was 13. He visited me every year until he was 25, when he was arrested and detained by the security police, who accused him of being an ANC courier. Such was the outcry in Britain that they had to release him after six days and he was deported, being prohibited from visiting me again. While he was flying back to Britain his aunt, Joan Weinberg, was murdered in an act of spite. Then he became very active politically indeed.
Last week I visited Johannesburg. I took the opportunity to visit the national offices of the South African Communist Party and renewed my party card. It is a lousy party, but it is the only one we've got. In particular it is compromised by participating in a government which represents the interests of the bourgeoisie. In fact the GNU exercises the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie rather than the interests of the working class.
However, I joined in 1940 and feel a gap if I am not paid up. Furthermore there is an inner-party struggle going on between the old and the new, so I have a feeling of hope.
David Kitson Zimbabwe
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